Huawei Mate 9 release date, specs, news: upcoming flagship has the Kirin 960 processor

Featured in the image is the Huawei Mate 8 Huawei consumer website

The anticipated Mate 9 flagship is seemingly confirmed for an imminent launch, as Huawei makes official the new supposed chipset for the flagship, the Kirin 960 processor.

In the press event, Huawei unveiled the new chipset, although the tech maker has not committed anything for the Kirin 960 powering the upcoming Mate 9. However, since the chipset is now official, it is more likely that it will be the processor which will be featured in the new flagship. Huawei has always provided a step-up Kirin chipset for its flagship lineups. In fact, the current-gen Mate 8 was released late last year, following the unveiling of its processor, the Kirin 955 chipset.

In the press event, Huawei highlighted the improvements for the new processor. The Kirin 960 chipset has reportedly improved CPU efficiency by as much as 15 percent compared to its predecessor, while GPU efficiency has been improved with a 20 percent increase. There are also improvements in terms of storage speed and performance, as well as an increase in speed for connectivity. Huawei also showcased that the new chipset allows CDMA support, meaning devices powered by the Kirin 960 processor will be able to enter markets using the CDMA standard.

Aside from under-the-hood improvements of the flagship devices, Huawei also underscored improvements for devices using the new processor. Supposedly, the Kirin 960 chipset is the first processor to feature Huawei's Image Signal Processor. This feature will improve image capture, and it is said to bring camera setups closer to the human eye's way of functioning for shooting images.

With the Kirin 960 chipset now official, it is said that the launch of the Huawei Mate 9 is also imminent. Huawei has already confirmed a press event on Nov. 3, although it did not specify what the launch will be all about. However, with the Mate 9 the only flagship (unless Huawei comes out with a surprise, new one) in the pipeline, it is expected that the new iteration will debut early next month.

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